The point I'm making, and you are missing, is that guns not only facilitate, but encourage violence. Guns are the "tool" (your word) of choice for criminals, thugs and angry assholes with an axe to grind against society.
Guns remain a tool. They're just a better tool to use. Sort of like using a powered circular saw rather than a hand saw. If unavailable, people will simply use what they have access to get the 'job' done. That is, criminals with no access to firearms will choose knives, swords, axes, etc. Ban those and eventually you're banning pointy sticks.
Better to address the causes by first locking up criminals and keeping them in jail longer, and second by providing useful outlets for those that might be inclined to be criminals including things like mandatory work for welfare. It isn't a perfect answer, but it's better than hand wringing and taking away 'toys' from bad kids.
That first, locking up criminals, means we need a law enforcement system that creates the appearance and outcomes that if you commit a crime, even a relatively minor one, there will be negative consequences for it. Not tolerating criminals is where you have to start.
It doesn't take a genius or a sociologist to understand that there are underlying social problems that cause the violent urges to begin with, not to mention the innate violent nature of humans in general. But when you take those factors, add them together and throw an over availability of guns into the mix, what you get is what we see today... weekly mass shootings in which innocent people, small children included, are mowed down and slaughtered because some unstable nutjob was able to easily obtain access to as many firearms as they wanted and enough ammo to wipe out an entire football stadium of people.
That's why the first step is arresting criminals and keeping them in jail. If criminals
know they're going to be caught and arrested or there's a damn good chance of it, they'll stop doing a lot of crimes. Illegal immigration all but ceased at the Southern border on Trump's election. Those crossing
knew they'd be caught and deported, not let in so they stopped trying. If shoplifters and 'smash and grab' robbers
know there's a damn good chance that the shop owner is armed and will shoot them, they won't try robbing that store.
If we institutionalize the crazy--sure, give them a chance, maybe two, to work their problems out with treatment and meds and remain on the street--once they show they're incapable of reliably getting treatment on their own, arrest or otherwise deal with the homeless where they're not allowed to camp on sidewalks or sleep in doorways that eliminates that source of crime. Take graffiti seriously and make those caught doing it work for days cleaning it up or they go to jail.
When crime has a relative certainty of being caught and punished by society, crime goes down. When criminals are given every break and little or no punishment, crime goes up.
The reason why we're stuck in this never ending and increasingly escalating cycle of violence, is because conservative males are scared to death that if their guns were to disappear, their imaginary manhood would disappear right along with them.
This is utter bullshit. The reason we're stuck with this is the Left doesn't want to deal with the underlying problem. Automatic bail, minimal sentencing, little punishment for crimes, ignoring certain types of crime, refusing to take mental health issues seriously, and a plethora of other such things results in more crime, more shootings, etc. Bring back personal responsibility rather than a mentality that everyone including the criminal is just a "victim" and not really to blame.